Signage and You — Are the Signs in Front of Your Business Repelling Customers, or Bringing Them In?

Have you ever seen those outdoor church signs or marquee signs that grab your attention from the road? They’re designed very specifically so that you see them, and can clearly read the message displayed on it. They’re so clear, readers can catch the dates and times printed on them without distracting themselves from the road. Signs are an important part of any company’s visibility. Without signs, your building can look just as naked and empty as an abandoned building. In other words, not many people are going to want to go in there!

Keeping signs out front isn’t just about legitimizing the appearance of your building. People genuinely trust the content of signs and depend on them to navigate daily life. A survey conducted recently found that about a third of all Americans have discovered a business at one point because its sign appealed to them. That is to say, there are a lot of businesses in the United States right now which would have a lot less customers if they hadn’t chosen their signage so wisely.

Mind you, a church marquee is not the only type of sign out there and churches are far from the only entities which use signs to communicate with the public. A very interesting study was recently undertaken to determine exactly how effective a sign can really be. The study found that around 18 percent, or one-in-five of Best Buy’s customers shop there because they were or are enticed by its sign. The efficacy of good signage is easy to take for granted in today’s competitive marketplace, though the above statistics clearly demonstrate that we shouldn’t.

Commercial business signs are unlike your typical outdoor church signs in that they are usually designed with some knowledge of human psychology in mind. For example, it is broadly understood that yellow is the color which humans pay the most attention to, which is why many road signs and traffic warnings are yellow. Digital signs for business are likely to capitalize on any and all information pertaining to what makes a sign effective and what doesn’t.